Menken, Adah IsaacsInfelicia

I.

O Bards! weak heritors of passion and of pain!Dwellers in the shadowy Palace of Dreams!With your unmated souls flying insanely at the stars!Why have you led me lonely and desolate to the deathless Hill of Song?You promised that I should ring tracing shivers ofrapt melody down to the dumb earth.You promised that its echoes should vibrate till Time'scircles met in old Eternity.You promised that I should gather the stars like blossoms to my white bosom.You promised that I should create a new moon ofPoesy.

YOU promised that wild wings of my soul shouldshimmer through the dusky locks of the clouds, likeburning arrows, down into the deep heart of the dimworld.

But, O Bards! sentinels on the Lonely Hill, why breaksthere yet no day to me?